Advertisements such as banner ads are often displayed in a web page in response to, for example, a user typing the Universal Resource Locator (“URL”) for that web page into a web browser or selecting a link for the web page from a list of search results. Typically, each advertisement is associated with a single advertiser and may include text and/or graphics and/or audio. Upon selection of an advertisement (e.g., left click with a mouse), the web browser can be redirected to a web page associated with the advertisement from which the user can, for example, receive additional information, place online orders, or complete other transactions.
Advertisements can be selected for presentation in a web page in a variety of ways. An advertiser may pay to have its advertisements displayed within a given web page. For example, a brokerage house, bank, or manufacturer of accounting software may contract with a web page provider to have an advertisement displayed within a web page related to stock markets and financial data. The idea according to this approach is that end-users are more likely to “click-through” or otherwise respond to advertisements that are closely related to the content of the web page. While common, this approach limits the audience who will see the advertisements to visitors of the given web page. If an advertisement is not effective on the particular web page, the advertiser's only recourse is to stop advertising on that page and find a new web page on which to advertise.
In another approach, advertisements are selected for display within a web page substantially in real time based on demographical information of the particular user who is accessing the web page. For example, each user may be required to complete a questionnaire, provided via the internet, as a prerequisite to receiving access to the web page. Alternatively, a profile may be created for a user based on the user's activities while on-line including, for example, an indication of the web pages visited, how frequently and for how long those web pages are visited, how often the user makes a purchase on-line, and any demographic information the user supplies in the course of visiting websites. Demographic information may also be collected and retained by providers of web pages through the use of “cookies”. Web pages that place cookies to within the memory of the user's computer can recognize the user whenever the user accesses the web page and can be used to track, for example, how often the user accesses the web page. The idea according to this approach is that end-users are more likely to “click-through” or otherwise respond to advertisements that are closely related to the user's interests and characteristics. However, this approach for selecting and displaying advertisements is often perceived as intrusive of the user's privacy and may be ineffective when the web page provider has insufficient information regarding the user's demographics.
Internet search engines also exist that display advertisements within a list of search results based on the keywords entered by a user into a search field. Typically, advertisers bid on the keywords and the highest bidder for a particular keyword is awarded the top most position in a ranked list, the next highest bidder is assigned the second highest position in the list, and so on. However, these systems have various drawbacks, including that the system has no control over the selection and display of advertising once the user navigates away from the web page containing the search results.
In view of the foregoing, it would be advantageous to provide an improved system and method for selecting and displaying advertisements over the internet.